Brian Eno Announces ‘Music for Installations’ Box Set

Brian Eno is set to release a box set of new, rare and unreleased tracks on May 4.

Music for Installations consists of material he’s written for art installations from 1986 through the present. The set will be available as a six-CD box and on vinyl, with super deluxe editions of both versions containing a 64-page book that features rare exhibition images and a new essay by Eno.

The track listing for the six-disc CD version can be seen below.

“Music For Installations is a collection of new, rare and previously unreleased music, all of which was recorded by Brian Eno for use in his installations," reads the press release for the set. "He has emerged as the leading exponent of ‘generative’ music worldwide and is recognized as one of the foremost audio-visual installation artists of his time. Eno’s visual experiments with light and video have proved to be the fertile ground from which so much of his other work has grown and they cover an even longer span of time than his recordings, paralleling his musical output in recent decades."

The works have been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Marble Palace in St. Petersburg, Beijing’s Ritan Park and the Sydney Opera House, among other places around the world.

Eno released his 27th album, Reflection, last year, and accompanied the standard version with an app edition that created what he called “endless and endlessly changing” music. “My original intention with ambient music was to make endless music, music that would be there as long as you wanted it to be,” he said. “I wanted also that this music would unfold differently all the time – like sitting by a river. It’s always the same river, but it’s always changing.”

Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera recently revealed why the band had shelved their 2011 album, which was to feature Eno. “We went into the studio with Brian Eno and with Chris Thomas, our original producer, and we sort of did about 15 or 16 tracks,” Manzanera said. “At that point, Bryan [Ferry] said he couldn’t write lyrics anymore, so we just put out hands up in the air and just said, ‘Ah! Ugh! I’m speechless. Okay … goodbye.’”